Hard Drive

[Gseip]

After a normal start-up, the hard drive has now (twice, months apart) froze/stuttered
AFTER selecting IE. No usb add-ons were connected at the time.

Emachines
600is
IntelCeleron
Trigem Board
OEM 5400 hd
Lexmark Z42 printer.
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[0roo0roo]

its using dma mode? right click properties in device manager or whatever. otherwise, it might be a sign of a drive on its last legs. backup either way, and consider drive unreliable

 

[corkyg]

Yep! Consider it as a warning. Get it backed up.

 

[Harvey]

Go to the drive manufacturer's site, and d/l their test utility. Most makers have a quick test and a long one. If yours passes the quick test, run the long one. Depending on the size and speed of your drive (ATA 100/133 or SATA), it may take awhile so you may want to set it running overnight for the long test.

 

[Gseip]

Uses Ultra ATA manager and says "no conflict". Am using ME at this time, waiting
on the bugs to be worked out of VISTA. Don't like Big Button XP.
The Beta version of Vista Professional (v2) is still a mess, so I don't know when a home version will EVER be viable.
Am planning on building a new unit with a 939 AMD 550w ps, 7200 Seagate; but wanted to wait until next year.
If this happens once more I'll get the Seagate as master and slave the 5400.
It seemed like a software conflict but nothing seems wrong in the Start-up tab
of msconfig. It's almost as if the HD is being told to "seek&shut-down" at the same time!
Anyway Thnx for the reply
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[Harvey]

Hard drives are really cheap. Get a new one, now, and use a program like Norton Ghost to clone your current drive to the new one. Then, just plug the new one in as your main drive.

If you live anywhere near a Fry's Electronics, right now, they have a Maxtor 200 GB ATA 133 drive for $60 with no rebate. You'll have to check your local area store to see if this is available in your area.

When you build your new system, you'll probably want SATA drives, but the one you buy, now, will always be good for backup and storing files you don't need on your main drive.

 

[Gseip]

This is off topic, but my reply window is squeezed into the lower right hand of my
screen. The right edge dissappears into nowhere! Any quick fixes??

Anyway; the HD I buy now, either Seagate or western Digital, will be compatible
withe the ASUS 939 MB. I plan to build or have built, a 550-600watt ps with twin
80mm "Whisper Fans" (sealed bearings) plus a third fan on the MB, plus extra
thermal glue on the chipset. Living in San Diego with the ocean salt air to the West
and the fine particulates from the desert to the East presents excitiment when trying
to cool computer equipment'
Thnx for you help
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[Gseip]

Never mind! (about the screen).
My 20 year old daughter just got home from the gym and SDSU and made me feel about 1" tall with the "Oh,Dad, just grab the blue bar, move and maximize."
She spend's her life on school work and "My Space" on this thing.
Anyway, thanks for all replys but I'm still looking for an answer if it could be a software conflict or mechanical. By the way; not included before were two facts. The night before, she used a usb cable (front panel) to download songs onto her MP3 player and two: I had to shut off the surge protector ( primary power) to shut down the computer. When I restarted I went into safe mode to normal re-boot.
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PS. Is there a spell check on this window???